RICK MORANIS

'Frederick Alan "Rick" Moranis' (born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian and musician best known for his comedy work on ''SCTV'' and appearances in several Hollywood films, including ''Ghostbusters'', ''Little Shop of Horrors'', ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'', ''Spaceballs'', and ''My Blue Heaven''. He is known in the movie business as "Slick Rick," due to his ability to play the lovable dork to perfection in every movie.

Contents

Biography

Early life and ''SCTV'' career

Film career

Recent activities

Trivia

External links

Biography

Early life and ''SCTV'' career

Moranis was born Frederick Alan Moranis in Toronto, Ontario. In the 1970s, he worked (using the stage name 'Rick Allen') as a disc jockey at various radio stations in Toronto, including CFTR, CKFH, and CHUM-FM. Together with Ken Finkleman, he tried his hand at stand-up and did some comedy for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He followed that with his work at ''SCTV'', enjoying particular success portraying "Bob" of Bob and Doug McKenzie. Doug was played by Canadian actor Dave Thomas.
His other memorable SCTV characterizations include motor-mouthed film producer Larry Siegel, terminally-ill rock star Clay Collins, smooth-voiced video deejay Gerry Todd, cool Leutonian pop star Linsk Minyk, kid-brother amateur comic Skip Bittman, head cheese butcher Carl Scutz, and morning homily intellect Rabbi Karlov.

Film career

After his ''SCTV'' work, Moranis had a busy film career which lasted over a decade. In an August 2004 interview with Sound & Vision magazine, Moranis talked about the kinds of films he enjoyed the most:
The films he worked on include:


★ ''Brother Bear 2'' (2006)

★ ''Brother Bear'' (2003)

★ ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & The Island of Misfit Toys'' (2001)

★ ''Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves'' (1997)

★ ''Big Bully'' (1996)

★ ''The Flintstones'' (1994)

★ ''Little Giants'' (1994)

★ ''Splitting Heirs'' (1993)

★ ''Honey, I Blew Up the Kid'' (1992)

★ ''L.A. Story'' (1991)

★ ''My Blue Heaven'' (1990)

★ ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' (1989)

★ ''Parenthood'' (1989)

★ ''Ghostbusters II'' (1989)

★ ''Spaceballs'' (1987)

★ ''The Rocket Boy'' (1987)

★ ''Club Paradise'' (1986)

★ ''Head Office'' (1986)

★ ''Little Shop of Horrors'' (1986)

★ ''Brewster's Millions'' (1985)

★ ''Ghostbusters'' (1984)

★ ''Streets of Fire'' (1984)

★ ''The Wild Life'' (1984)

★ ''Strange Brew'' (1983)

Recent activities

As of 2004, Moranis was on the Advisory Committee for the at Humber College, the only such diploma program in the world.
In an October 2005 interview in ''USA Today'', Moranis talked about backing away from the movie business:
"I pulled out of making movies in about '96 or '97. I'm a single parent (Moranis' wife died in 1991 of liver cancer), and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn't miss it."
In 2005, Moranis released an album entitled ''The Agoraphobic Cowboy'', featuring country songs with lyrics which Moranis says follow in the comic tradition of songwriters/singers such as Roger Miller and Jim Stafford. The album was produced by Tony Scherr, and is distributed through ArtistShare, as well as Moranis' official Web site. In the ''Sound & Vision'' interview done before he decided to release the album, he commented on the origins of some of the songs:
On December 8, 2005, ''The Agoraphobic Cowboy'' was announced as a nominee for the 2006 Grammy for Best Comedy Album.
(A previous album by Moranis was entitled ''You, Me, The Music, and Me'' (1989).
On February 3, 2006, Moranis performed "''Press Pound''" on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' and discussed the development of his music career.
On 8th September, 2007 Rick Moranis watched from the crowds the semi-finals of the US Open Tennis match between Roger Federer and Nikolay Davydenko

Trivia

One of Rick Moranis' trademarks is that, with the exception of ''Strange Brew'' and ''The Flintstones'', he always wears eyeglasses in his films.
Celebrities impersonated by Moranis on SCTV include: David Brinkley, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Woody Allen, Richard Dreyfuss, Al Waxman, George Carlin, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Anson Williams, Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, Jim Bakker, Brent Musburger, Henry Moore, Phil Silvers, John Denver, and the voice of Gordon Lightfoot.

External links

★ Official website

★

★ His ArtistShare projects

★ Rick Moranis, Singing 'Cowboy', a December 2005 story from ''Weekend Edition''

★ Rock Radio Scrapbook 1973, with a RealAudio clip of Rick Allen from June 1973

★ Review of ''The Agoraphobic Cowboy'' from the ''Country Music Television'' website

★ An Hour with SCTV's Rick Moranis, an August 2004 interview with Sound & Vision magazine

★ October 2005 Interview with Moranis from the ''USA Today'' website

★ OpEd Piece by Moranis from the ''NY Times'' website